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Monday, 31 October 2016

I know Halloween is not to everyone's taste but I have a friend in the USA who loves it almost as much as I do and it was her birthday last week. I made her a haunted house a while back, which you can see here. She has received her other little treat now so I can show it here, this is what I made her....a little Halloween album in a box... ahem... coffin box.

Thursday, 20 October 2016

I just want to say a huge thank you for the lovely comments on my haunted house, my witchy cabinet and also my simple die cut cards in my last post, I really love making Halloween/Autumn projects and I do appreciate all of your lovely comments!

I was so thrilled when I saw Tim's tag for this month, which you can see HERE. This month's Remix is Patchwork Collage and Sizzix Monster.

I don't have the monster die but I do have the Zombie and I have used him to create my tag.

I followed Tim's instructions to make the background. I applied the Distress Collage Medium - Crazing with my finger, which Tim suggested, it is much better than using a brush as it leaves no brush marks and gives you more control over where to put the medium.

You can see the crazing a little better in the picture below. I love how the cracks appear when you rub in the Distress Crayons.

For the Zombie I used the Cobweb embossing folder to create the texture on his face.

To finish off I added staples, the Idea-ology skeleton and the word band.

I am adding this to Tim's Tags for October.

As always, thanks for looking, hope the Zombie has not been too scary for you!

To create a card with the Canning die, tape a folded card just inside one of the cutting lines on the die. This will give you a folding card shaped like the canning jar.

I used some 'mop up' card left over from a previous project to cut the leaves using the Eileen Hull Leaves, Spring die. The colours on the leaves are Distress stains in Fired Brick and Spiced Marmalade along with some Carved Pumpkin. The leaves were folded and veins were added with a Distress Marker.

The top of the jars were cut from card backed with foil. Once cut the tops were scored to give a more realistic look. The jar bases were coloured with Distress Inks.

The leaves were added to the jars along with labels cut from the Lovely Labels die set, attached with some string. The acorn was coloured with Distress Markers and Distress Glitter was added to the top of each acorn (Vintage Photo).

Perhaps not quite CAS cards but they were quick and easy to create!

You can see some other Fall/Holiday projects the Inspiration Team have made over at Eileen's blog HERE and for the rest of this month, you will also be able to see more cards created with Eileen's dies/products, again on Eileen's blog.

Thursday, 13 October 2016

The October Creative Adventure at Creative Carte Blanche is Witchy Woman. Since we are near to Halloween I decided to create a witchy cabinet.

For the base of the cabinet I used Eileen Hull's Candy Drawer Box (Sizzix 657726). The top of the cabinet is a Tim Holtz Vignette Box and I used Tim Holtz's Regions Beyond paper stack to cover the cabinet. The finished cabinet measures 10" x 5.1/2".

The drawers were covered with Regions Beyond papers and the drawer knobs are Idea-ology Hitch Fasteners. The broom is also Idea-ology, as is the spooky charm and the spider.

On the bottom shelf I added some Idea-ology bottles, pumpkins, bones and a witches hat (die cut and painted with Evergreen Bough Distress Paint).

The witch lady is mounted onto an Idea-ology frame and the skull and crossbones are mounted within an Idea-ology dome. The books are handmade from cardstock and the spiders on this part are from my stash.

The flowers are made from Tim Holtz's Tiny Tattered Floral Thinlits die, the bottle has been coloured black with Alcohol Ink.

I used my newest die, Tim's Twisted Edge for the top of the cupboard, mounting this onto Tim's Plaque die.

The back and sides of the cupboard were covered with Regions Beyond papers. The Idea-ology '31' was added to the front of the cabinet to finish it off.

Friday, 7 October 2016

I am pleased to say it is my turn to host the challenge at A Vintage Journey this month and I have chosen the theme - 'Make it Spooky'

As we approach All Hallows Eve we want you to create a vintage, shabby, industrial, steampunk or mixed media project to celebrate the spookiness of Halloween! Don't limit yourself to black, orange and purple - just 'Make it Spooky'!

Some of you may remember that I recently made a Haunted House for a dear friend - well I love this die by Tim Holtz so much I just had to make one for myself too!

I love Halloween and could not wait to use my new Tim Holtz Village Manor and Lost Zombie dies to create a 3D scene to fit inside my beautiful glass dome (you can see that below).

I gathered together the dies for the Manor, along with Tim's Regions Beyond paper pad and the Halloween Deco Sheets which I used for the roof parts.

I started off making the base from foam board which I cut into an 8" diameter circle. I used a stone texture embossing folder to create a stone look base and painted this with various Tim Holtz Distress Paints.

I cut several pieces of Tim's new Gothic Gate and pieced them together to go all around the base.

I put the Manor together following the instructions, I added the piece over the door which was an offcut and I decorated the door with offcuts too.

I wanted to add some lights and needed somewhere to hide the battery pack, so I added some steps up to the Manor, a tip I picked up from Annette Green's gorgeous creation here. The lights are intended for a model railway but the scale was perfect for my Manor House.

I love this fabulous Lost Zombie! He was out of scale for the Manor so I cut him from shrink plastic and coloured him in with alcohol markers. The charm pumpkins he is holding are from Tim's Idea-ology range and these have been coloured with alcohol ink. I added some tombstones from Tim's Graveyard On the Edge die and some of Tim's trees (a very early die), some autumn leaves and a couple of die cut pumpkins.

To finish off I die cut some bats, (an old Memory Box die) added some twisted wire and secured them to the chimney pots.

And here is the finished Haunted Manor, which I have displayed in this beautiful glass dome. I bought this dome after seeing Jan Hobbins use one for a Christmas scene last year. Now my spooky manor is ready to go in my window on Halloween. Not too scary but a little spooky I hope! It does light up too but I could not get a decent photo of that - sorry!

I do hope you have the time to visit A Vintage Journey, my team mates have excelled themselves with the most fabulous spooky makes! I also hope you will join us this month, we all love seeing what you create - and as always, there is a prize on offer for one randomly selected individual!

I so rarely get to join in challenges, I would like to enter into Simon Says Monday Challenge where the challenge theme is Halloween, I hope my spooky scene with the zombie and pumpkin counts!

I have been so busy with family visits I missed seeing the challenge at Country View Challenges where the theme is All Things Spooky, so I would like to join in the challenge.

Thanks so much for your visit, it really means a lot. Hope to see you soon! Anne xxx

Wednesday, 5 October 2016

It is time for a new challenge at Anything But Cute and the talented Autumn of Sew Paper Paint has chosen - An Autumn Day as her theme! Here is what Autumn had to say:

'I could not help but choose October as my month to hostess here at Anything But Cute. This month, we want to see your creations, inspired by an Autumn Day. Anything goes mixed media with a Fall palette or Autumnal elements. Be inspired by nature - with the sights, smells and sounds of this beautiful season. We cannot wait to see the amazing artwork you turn out.'

I made a small wall hanging for Autumn's wonderful theme.

I love this time of year, the changing leaf colours, finding acorns and chestnuts, the crisp Autumn air.... all of it! I have tried to capture the colours of Autumn in my wall hanging, made with Tim Holtz products, including dies, burlap and Distress Spray Stains.

I took a sheet of burlap from Tim's Textured Surfaces range (they are self adhesive) and attached it to a piece of cardboard 4" x 5.3/4", folding over the edges to give a nice neat finish. I went around the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I coloured some card with various Distress Spray Stains and cut out a selection of leaves, branches and acorns using Tim's Fall Foliage Thinlit die and also Autumn Gatherings strip die.

At the same time as I coloured the card I also coloured the ribbon with Distress Spray Stains. I cut a small piece of corrugated card from Tim's Textured Surfaces and coloured this with Walnut Stain Distress Paint. The word is an Idea-ology Flash Card.

Next, I mixed some DecoArt Crackle Paste with a little Ground Espresso Distress Paint and applied this through the Flourish stencil to the right hand side of the panel.

Once dry, I darkened the stencilled flourish with some more Ground Espresso Paint. The leaves were layered up onto the strip of corrugated card. I added some Baby Breath for some contrast.

Here is a closer look at the Autumn foliage. The acorns were coated with a layer of Glossy Accents and I added some Walnut Stain Distress Glitter to the acorn tops.

I mounted the panel onto a a thick piece of card, punched two holes in the top and added some twisted rusty wire as a hanger.

I do hope you will join us for Autumn's wonderful challenge at Anything But Cute this month, it would be lovely to see you there! My talented teamies have made the most wonderful creations to inspire you!